Kazakhs Detained Ahead Of Call For Internet Freedom

ALMATY -- Police in Almaty detained a group of young activists ahead of a planned public action to support Internet freedoms on World Press Freedom Day on April 24, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported.

One of the detainees, Zhanar Kasymbekova, told RFE/RL that police stopped them at a bus stop and demanded to see the contents of their bags.

When they asked the policemen to explain the request, they said, they were forcibly escorted into a police car and taken to Almaty's Bostandyk district police station.

The head of the Almaty-based Ar-Rukh-Khak human rights foundation, Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, told RFE/RL that police appear to have known about the young activists' plans and detained them to prevent their action to protest censorship in the Internet.